culture hero
Noun
Meaning
culture hero (plural culture heroes)
(idiomatic) A mythical character or real person who is renowned as the exemplar of the values or achievements of a society, group, or time period.
culture-hero (plural culture-heroes)
Alternative form of culture hero
Alternative names
culture-hero
Examples
Hero or god Heracles' role as a culture hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling (see below), was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times.
Raggio, p. 48. In Georgian mythology, Amirani is a culture hero who challenged the chief god, and like Prometheus was chained on the Caucasian mountains where birds would eat his organs.
Fictional figures such as Sarutobi Sasuke would eventually make way into comics and television, where they have come to enjoy a culture hero status outside of their original mediums.